The spy who loved me.
Warning: Full spoilers below.
What would a season of Homeland be if one of Carrie’s innocent contacts didn’t get killed off? There’s always some poor sucker who gets pulled into the cyclone of intrigue and danger that is Carrie Mathison’s life, and ultimately doesn’t live to tell the tale even as Carrier herself moves on to her next assignment, her next adventure, and her next friend/victim (frenictim?). The guy this week had a second chance in his new life — and now he’ll never get his MBA!
But seriously, for me this is one of the aspects of Carrie that pushes her into unlikable territory. Not the crying faces or the nervous breakdowns or the old obsession over Brody, but the carelessness with which she enters into situations and gets those around her killed.
Anyway, Carrie’s mission to Amsterdam at least took her one step closer to solving the riddle of why the Russians want her dead. At least, I think it did, as I admit to having some trouble piecing this plot together at this point. The not-dead-lawyer from Iraq is located by Carrie in Amsterdam, and at the exact same time he’s targeted by the Russians! Bad timing for him, or very good timing for bringing a bit of action to this episode, I suppose. But what can we take away from this? The not-dead-lawyer from Carrie’s past and Carrie both know or saw something at some time that the Russians do not want getting out there along with the leaked documents?
Allison, meanwhile, has turned into a real drama queen, but I love every minute of it. When she hears from Saul that Carrie is in fact still alive, the panic attack that ensues is just a great moment that also — and stay with me here — reminded me of 2001: A Space Odyssey, as HAL 9000 realizes that his days are numbered and Dave Bowman is coming to shut him down. This is a stretch, I know, but the sterile hotel bathroom setting and the running water really evoked that 2001 feel for me, where Bowman’s breathing apparatus and the sterile setting were the only accompaniment to the complete fear and desperation of HAL. That computer was totally screwed, and so is Allison.
Also of note is her interplay with Ivan the Russian, who seems to know Allison better than anyone on this show. Her fear of spending the rest of her life in prison is balanced and perhaps outweighed, he says, by her love of the game. “Nobody does it better than you,” Ivan tells her. If that isn’t a Spy Who Loved Me reference, than you can take away my James Bond fan club card right now. Allison will be meeting her opposite, Carrie, in next week’s episode, which should be something to see. 007 versus 006!
Meanwhile, Quinn is off on a new side mission that seemingly has nothing to do with Carrie’s plight. It’s amazing and impressive how opportunistic the gut-shot Quinn is, diving right into this new opening without missing a beat. His ability to play these terrorists — I call them The Quinn Admirer’s Society — is almost comical for their apparent inexperience and gullibility, though I wonder if this will come back to bite Quinn. Also, what does Quinn think about Carrie at this point? Does he just assume she’s escaped and run off? It wasn’t that long ago that he was going to kill himself in order to maintain her cover, after all. Also, while it had felt as though Carrie and Saul and Quinn’s stories were starting to converge a couple of episodes ago, Quinn is now off to parts unknown once again. Which would seem to be how he prefers it, actually.
Saul’s situation with Dar and the agency became untenable for him this week, so he did what anyone would do — he defected to Israel! Well, kind of maybe temporarily he did. In the short term this can’t help his situation, as it would almost certainly prove to Dar what he already believes about Saul. But I like to laugh at the in-universe ramifications of this kind of Homeland move. Imagine the headlines? “Former Acting CIA Director Defects!”
Some notes:
- Speaking of former CIA Directors, whatever happened to Lockhart?
- The wifi password is Pope Francis, two words.
- Don’t you just hate being the latest unperson in the latest looming scandal?
- “Now they’re going to die like dogs in the desert.”
- I don’t quite get why Carrie would be pouring her heart out to During about Jonas. Yeah, I guess they’re friends as well as colleagues, but still…
- And During takes that closeness that Carrie offers and totally pulls a gank move and tells Jonas she’s unstable and she’s out. See, I told you he was a bad guy!
An entertaining episode of Homeland that kept things moving with a bit of action and some choice moments for all our leads, “Oriole” also reminded us of some of Homeland’s more outlandish qualities with the Saul and Quinn subplots. Not that that’s a bad thing, because if you’re still watching this show into Season 5, you know by now to expect a little bit of craziness to be mixed in with your spy thriller ingredients.
